A further 40,000 barrels of beer a year will be brewed in Wrington in future to keep up with customer demand.

Butcombe Brewery, one of the region’s biggest food and drink businesses, has announced ‘significant’ expansion plans across two sites in Somerset.

It will be increasing its North Somerset business capacity and creating a new storage facility in Bridgwater, too.

The estimated cost of the changes is £4million.

Butcombe hopes the changes will allow it to become the South West’s ‘number one brewer’.

Extra fermentation and conditioning vessels will be used in Wrington to improve capacity and capability.

Butcombe bosses say there is a need to expand its business due to a rise in demand.

Butcombe Original, Goram, Bohemia and Blonde beers have seen sales rise by more than 10 per cent in recent years and the changes will allow the firm to meet customer need.

Steve Wilkinson, managing director of brewing and brands for Butcombe, believes the investment will make a big difference.

He said: “This significant investment will provide us with a new platform to better service our loyal Butcombe customers more effectively at a lower cost which we intend to reinvest in our Butcombe beer brands to secure our future growth, and keep pace with the increasing demand for all of our new beers.”

The brewery also will create a beer storage and delivery facility in Bridgwater, near the M5. A dozen jobs will be created at the site.

“The investment in specialist bottling and kegging equipment is a rare opportunity for a regional brewer of our size to really gear up and satisfy the rapidly changing market, to redouble our efforts in our heartland with Butcombe Cask beers at the centre of what we do supported by the same consistent quality beers in bottle and keg.

“These improvements will allow us to ensure we retain and enhance our quality reputation while stepping up production to move closer to our long-term goal of becoming the number one regional brewer.”